"Where will the road lead me?
Who will venture with me?
There are no signs along the road,
If I walk into a narrow path again.
In search for my dream like in search for fire,
Who will be wild with me?
The long night is getting colder,
But I can only try to hide."
--"Who will venture with me", Beyond, 1991
(translation by Vicky Ko)
Their signing with Cinepoly had very profound effects. Once again, they
made another step towards losing their musical freedom of expression.
Cinepoly, more so than Kinn's Music, was geared towards the making of
money. However, things weren't entirely so bad: in their first release
with Cinepoly, aside from some love songs ("Hei Foon Nei", "Sum Noi Sum
Ngoi", "Jok Yat dik Hin Boon") they also had a few message songs. Probably
most notaable are their first number one hits, "Dai Dei" and "Choong Hoi
Yat Chai". Successively, their music became more pop, and probably
somewhat fortunate for them, this was a period when messages in music
became widely accepted and sought after. Therefore, while their music was
not entirely "mainstream", it was definitely an option many people
embraced. So much so that their music became title songs on HKTVB shows
(which was an indication of their growing popularity - HKTVB was *the*
authority in public broadcast of videos, and this was a time that saw the
exponential growth of MTV as a major force in American culture...for TVB to
be willing to choose someone to write title songs on their shows indicates
definite popularity).
Their subsequent major release, "Beyond IV", was an instant hit. With
songs such as "Jun dik Ngoi Nei" (a song dedicated to their mothers) and
"Sai Hui Yat Gee" (a song used by TVB as the title song to "Tao Hei Seung
Gee Sing"), it's little wonder that this release ended up double platinum
(and still rising). Once again, their "commercial" songs were pretty much
on the "A" side, with their "dark" message songs on the "B" side. However,
synths were everywhere in this CD. I'm quite sure that many of the older,
die-hard fans of Beyond of the time started to doubt Beyond. Their second
LP with Kinn's had probably warned them that something was amiss; this CD
confirmed it. Beyond was starting to go all-out commercial (and not of
their choice). Some of the songs were outright sappy love ballads.
Unshaken, Beyond moved on.
(Personal note: this is when I first got exposed to Beyond.)
Their subsequent releases saw the slow path to independence.
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